KATMANDU (AP) ― A team of mountaineers led by a veteran Sherpa guide flew Wednesday to Mount Everest on an expedition to clear away tons of trash left on the world’s highest peak.Since Everest was first conquered in 1953, thousands of people have climbed it, leaving behind the empty oxygen bottles, ropes, tents and other garbage that made their journey possible.Nepal’s government has since imposed

(MCT)Bundang has the lowest smoking and drinking rates among cities in Gyeonggi Province, statistics showed Monday. The research was conducted on 41,000 Gyeonggi residents who visited local health care centers in the region in September, October and November. Among the visitors, residents of Bundang, one of the wealthiest cities in Gyeonggi province, showed the lowest smoking rate at 17.2 percent.

Star of one-woman play to perform in front of birth parents in first Asian productionRead from within the audience, a letter begins: “Dear ….” Following hesitantly, as the 20-year-old struggles to find the term for someone who should be so close, but is as yet unknown, comes the title ― “mother.”Written, adapted and performed by Amy Mihyang, “between” explores growing up as a Korean-American adopt

Jang Jeong, a Korean golfer on the U.S. LPGA Tour, is set to marry a former professional golfer Lee Jun-sik in Daejeon on April 9.The 31-year-old Jang joined the U.S. LPGA in 2000 after winning the Korea Women’s Open in 1997 as a high school student. She won the 2005 Weetabix Women’s British Open, the 2006 Wegmans LPGA and the 2006 Japan Women’s Open. Jang Jeong (right) and Lee Jun-sik  (iWedding

Former Justice Minister Kang Kum-sil has been appointed as a chair-professor of the University for Peace.According to the One, a professional law corporation where she works as an attorney, an academic committee of the UPEACE Asia Pacific Center in Seoul proposed the post in recognition of her efforts to protect the rights and interests of women and the underprivileged. Kang Kum-silKang says that

SYDNEY ― Funding for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism takes up about 1 percent of the Korea’s total budget this year, but spending should be doubled, Culture Minister Choung Byoung-gug said.“The cultural content industry is a new growth engine for the Korean economy and about 1 percent of the national budget should go to investment for cultural content development,” Choung told The Kore

Charles Montgomery thinks Korean literature could be on the brink of a popularity breakthrough.But when he looked on Wikipedia he was disappointed to find a dearth of information about it. Major authors were overlooked: Gong Ji-young’s page was a 60-word stub; Park Wan-suh had no page at all.That’s a disastrous situation in an age when if something isn’t on Wikipedia it doesn’t exist.“Suppose you

The number of native-speaking English teachers hired at public schools rose slightly this year, a telephone survey by the Korea Herald has found.Provincial and metropolitan education boards reported that the number of teachers rose 2.9 percent in March from a year before.The increase was mainly due to a 134 percent increase in Daegu to 567 teachers. The city government said that of the 325 staff a

  The number of South Korean couples who got divorced due to conflicts over money surged almost 78 percent in the past decade, a survey said Tuesday, indicating that financial problems are becoming a major factor in the rising divorce rate.   According to the survey of 4,405 divorced people conducted between 1990-2009 by one of the country's leading matchmaking firms Sunwoo, 12.7 percent of marria

WALNUT CREEK, California ― After the birth of her daughter five years ago, Cynthia Li, of Berkeley, California, was diagnosed with a severe thyroid condition and was unable to breast feed.Knowing the benefits of human milk, Li didn’t want to use formula and lamented her situation to a friend. The friend offered to send out a mass email on Li’s behalf asking like-minded moms to donate their extra b